October is Pizza Month. If you thought it was February, you can be excused the faux pas. February 9 is National Pizza Day. And various variants of the world’s favourite dish each have their own day somewhere on the calendar…
The ultimate Pizza? Pizzaiolo Johnny DiFrancesco’s Pizza World
Championship award-winning Pizza Margherita.
Who among us, when we were children, did not ask our parents: “If there’s Mother’s Day in May, and Father’s Day in June, when is Kids Day?” And who among us was not shamed with the traditional reply: “EVERY day is Kids’s Day!”
Older, presumably wiser
Now that we’re older (and presumably wiser) we’ve graduated to wondering what’s up with the celebratory days for some of the world’s most popular and iconic foods. In the many cases, the designated National Day for a food falls within its designated Month. But as in all aspects of our lives, there are exceptions.
So it is with the hands-down most popular food in the world: Pizza.
A formidable presence
As we teased in the opening paragraph, there is more to to ‘Pizza Day’ than initially meets the pie. Pizza is such a formidable presence in the lives of millions of North Americans that it spreads awareness of itself around the calendar.
Along with Pizza Day and Pizza Month, there are commemorative days set aside for specific variants of the savoury pie. Thenibble.com lists the following, though there may be more even they were not aware of:
- JANUARY: National Pizza Week, beginning the second Sunday in January
- FEBRUARY: Great American Pizza Bake, beginning the second week in February, a week where you’re encouraged to not only consume pizza but to try your hand at making it
- FEBRUARY: National Pizza Day (a.k.a. National Pizza Pie Day), February 9th
- APRIL: National Deep Dish Pizza Day, April 5th
- MAY: National Pizza Party Day, third Friday
- JUNE: Pizza Margherita Day, June 11th
- SEPTEMBER: National Cheese Pizza Day, September 5th
- SEPTEMBER: National Pepperoni Pizza Day, September 20th
- OCTOBER: National Pizza Month
- OCTOBER: International Beer and Pizza Day, October 9th
- OCTOBER: National Sausage Pizza Day, October 11th
- NOVEMBER: National Pizza With Everything Except Anchovies Day, November 12th
Pizza is quite simply never out of mind.
From a trickle to a flood
Yes. National Pizza Month is October. I’ve been seeing the notices of this year’s resto specials and associated activities trickle in for the past couple of weeks. But now the trickle is turning to a flood.
Check out Fast Food Week this coming Saturday for our first substantive report.
~ Maggie J.